E. V. Ramasami Naicker

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EVR better known as Periyar

Thanthai Periyar
Born: September 17, 1879
Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Died: December 24, 1973
Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation: Trader, Social Worker
Spouse: Nagammal, Maniammai

E.V. Ramasami Naicker (September 17, 1879December 24, 1973), also known as E.V. Ramaswami, EVR, Thanthai Periyar, or just Periyar, was a Indian atheist, anti-Hindu, social reformer, an activist, and the founder of Dravidar Kazhagam and the founder of the radical and sectarian denomination of the Dravidian Nationalist movement, innocuously called the Self-Respect Movement in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. While some of his ideas were relevant, most of his ideas were very extreme and therefore rejected by the people of Tamilnadu.


Contents

[edit] Biography

MGR with EVR
MGR with EVR

EVR's given name was Ramaswami. He was from a prominent Kannada Naicker caste, a community that descended from the Nayak rulers of Tamil Nadu. Hence he is called E. V. Ramaswami Naicker. "Periyar" means 'respected one' or an 'elder' in Tamil.

EVR was an atheist, noted for his antitheistic statement, "He who created god was a fool, he who spreads his name is a scoundrel, and he who worships him is a barbarian." His atheistic attacks and blasphemous acts, however, were directed at Hinduism alone. In 1956, he took a procession of Rama's picture garlanded with slippers near Dharmapuri and destroyed the portrait in public, drawing widespread protests from Indians whose religious sentiments were hurt. EVR's most popular writing is The Ramayana: A True Reading (1959), on the Ramayana, a Hindu epic.[1]

MGR paying respects to Periyar's mortal remains
MGR paying respects to Periyar's mortal remains

Though he was born in an affluent Telugu origin Naidu family, he started a movement claiming to "fight untouchability" which he used as a podium to tout intensely racist anti-Brahmanism and anti-Hindu prejudices,specifically targeting Brahmins, the rituals of Hinduism, and pseudoscientific views concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory and the caste system.

[edit] His Early Life

Periyar was the son of a merchant Venkata, who was a devout Hindu of the Vaishnavite school of thought. His mother was Chinna Thayammal alais Muthammal; he had one elder brother named Krishnaswamy and two sisters named Kannamma and Ponnuthoy. Periyar studied for 5 years and joined his father's trade at the age of 12. He used to listen to Tamil Vaishnavite gurus who gave discourses in his house enjoying his father's hospitality. Periyar was married to Nagammal a girl of just 13 in 1898. He became the father of a female child which soon died and he had no more children. After being reprimanded by his father, Periyar left his house for Kasi.[2]

[edit] Pilgrimage to Kaasi

He went on a pilgrimage to Varanasi to worship in the famous Siva temple Kashi Vishwanath in 1904. He wanted to enter a Free-lunch place but finding that it was meant only for Brahmins he disguised himself as a one. But it was discovered that he was not a Brahmin and he was removed from the place.Later he learnt that the Free-lunch place was built with the donation of a Dravidian merchant.[3] He saw the discrimination against non brahmins. He had pictured Kasi as a place where all Hindus would be treated equally. This humililation was the turning point in Periyar's life and after that made a deep wound in the heart of Periyar and it inflamed intense hatred towards the caste system and Hindu religion itself[4] On returning to Erode - his father delegated all his trade rights to this second son and renamed his major commercial concern under the title: "E.V. Ramasamy Mandi"

[edit] Rationalism

Ramaswami was a believer till the age of 28 and managed (dharmakartha) a temple. He became an atheist and followed western philosopher Nietzsche and claimed that God is dead. His anti-Brahmin rhetoric was carefully camouflaged in atheism. This won him considerable following in Tamil Nadu. He portrayed the Brahmins as villains of the society. Soon political parties saw an advantage in his rhetoric and began imitating him. Except a few, the majority of the people who listened to him did not give up religion or idol worship. Even today, his followers clandestinely offer prayers in Hindu temples and to swamis.

Ramaswami's rationalism was focussed on deriding the ritualistic practices by the priests, who were all Brahmins, in Sanskrit. His rhetoric always steered clear of Christians and Muslims.

[edit] Affiliation with the Indian National Congress

Initially, he joined the Congress Party in their political activism against British occupation. His critics dispute his contributions to the Congress party and say that his role was magnified as part of Dravidian nationalist propaganda.[5].[6], His views on Aryan Invasion Theory prompted him to change his political position and support the British occupation of South Asia, feeling that the invasionist scenario pseudoscience touted by the British (who viewed themselves as "Aryans" and so justified in their occupation of South Asia) was a valid reason.[7].Mohandas Gandhi did not like his views as he wanted to bring in reforms gradually and spoke of inclusion, not exclusion and hate; Periyar bolted away from the freedom movement.

[edit] Periyar a brief Timeline of his political struggle and ideology

[edit] Periyar as member of Congress Party 1919 - 1925

Periyar was a member of the Congress Party from 1919 onwards. He gave up many of his lucrative positions and properties at that time. However he split from Congress because the Congress refused to support his demand for entry into temples for all castes. This was because the Congress party was dominated by Brahmins in Tamilnadu at that time.

[edit] Vaikkom struggle 1924-1925

Periyar was involved in securing rights to entry into temples and access to temple roads for people of all castes in Vaikkom in Kerala which was part of the princely state Travancore during 1924. He played a role along with other great statesmen and national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, C. Rajagopalachari, Acharya Vinoba Bhave.

However to describe him as the sole fighter of this struggle is incorrect.

Mahatma Gandhi himself, leaders of Congress in Kerala and Madras Presidency were also involved. Since the entire event took place in Kerala most people who suffered where the native sons of the soil, the Scheduled castes and other backward classes in Travancore.

Periyar got the appellation "Vaikom Veerar" for his part in the struggle.

[edit] Self-Respect Movement: 1925-39

Periyar and his followers campaigned constantly to influence and pressurise the government to take measures to remove social inequality even while other nationalist leaders focussed on the struggle for political independence.

[edit] Anti-Hindi Movement 1937-1940

Hindi imposition in Tamil Nadu started in 1937 when the Congress Government of the Madras Presidency under (Rajaji) made Hindi a compulsory subject in schools. Tamils opposed Hindi imposition immediately and the Justice Party under Sir A. D. Panneerselvam and Periyar organized anti-Hindi imposition protests in 1938 and were arrested and jailed by the Rajaji government. More than 1200 people, including women and children, were imprisoned in 1938, of which two, Thalamuthu and Natarasan, lost their lives. In 1939 the Rajaji government quit and it was withdrawn in 1940 by the British governor.

[edit] Justice Party: 1939-1944

Justice Party was a rich man's party and had no grassroots support or leadership. Before World War II, the Justice Party ruled Madras Province for a short period. People voted Congress Party into power soon after the War. It was then the Justice Party began looking for someone popular with the masses, Ramaswami was an obvious choice. And the popular slogan social was "social justice",as a euphemism for anti-Brahmin rhetoric. He targeted Rajaji, the Congress leader and a Brahmin.

[edit] Dravidar Kazhagam 1944 - till Death

To give a local flavor, Ramaswami changed the name of the Justice Party to Dravidar Kazhagam (Party of the Dravidians). He pitched himself against the so-called "Aryans", who were the Brahmins again. He avoided parliamentary democracy and started his campaigns on his own. His followers who wanted politics split with him after his marriage to a very young woman and started the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, popularly known as the DMK. The DMK was first led by C.N. Annadurai and after him by M. Karunanidhi. [8] EVR and his dramatic anti-Brahman protests put new life into the party.The Dravidian Federation, and launched a Tamil "cultural offensive," including theatrical productions of a "reinterpreted" Ramayana-a version transposing hero and villain, in which the Sri Lankan demon king Ravana becomes a heroic "Dravidian of 'excellent character,' " and the Aryan prince Rama a conniving, "despicable character" . This and later political uses of drama capitalized on the strong literary focus among Tamils. Despite such attempts at mass propaganda, however, the party's membership continued to be drawn from the elite.[9]

The logical culmination of Periyar's anti-Hindi, anti-north Dravidian non-Brahmanism was reached when the Justice Party became secessionist in nature, demanding an independent Dravidshan for the Dravidians. Thus, caste-region interaction in Tamil Nadu strengthened an exclusionary regional nationalism. Further, it also sought to delegitimize Brahmans not only from society but also from their regional identity. However, this exclusion did not last long. Once the regional claims were realized through formation of Madras (now Tamil Nadu) State and non-Brahman claims were translated into an extensive policy of reservations, Brahmans were incorporated as members into the Tamil society. Brahmans are accommodated as ideologues and legitimizers of the regional legacy of the Dravidian movement.[1]

[edit] Split of DMK from Dravidar kazhagam - 1949

The DMK was considered to be split from Dravidar kazhagam, by C. N. Annadurai. The main reason for this was that Periyar did not want to be involved in the Government and wanted to do only public service. The second reason was Periyar married Maniammai a woman who was 40 years younger than him.

The more practical and political C. N. Annadurai and his followers chose this opportunity to break away and get involved in the new democratic system. Periyar did not even support DMK during any election and DMK came to power on its own following the economic turmoils of late 1960's and the promise of cheap rice.

[edit] EVR and Kula Kalvi Thittam/Hereditary Education Policy 1952-1954

Rajaji introduced a new education policy based on family vocation which its opponents dubbed Kula Kalvi Thittam (Hereditary Education Policy). As per this policy schools will work in the morning and students had to compulsorily learn the family vocation in the afternoon. A Carpenter’s son would learn Carpentry, a priest's son chanting hymns and a barber’s son hair cutting and shaving after school in the afternoon.[10] EVR felt that the scheme was a clever device against Dalits and Other Backward Classes as their first generation was getting educated only then.[11] EVR demanded its withdrawal and launched protests against the Kula Kalvi Thittam (Hereditary Education Policy) which he felt was caste-based and was aimed at maintaining caste hegemony. Rajaji quit in 1954 and Kamaraj scrapped it after becoming chief minister.[12][13]

[edit] Periyar supports Kamarajar of Congress Party 1954-1963

Periyar wrote two articles in his magazine Viduthalai (Freedom) in 1954 supporting Kamarasar and Congress Party which he had vehemently opposed. He did not support the DMK party which was formed by C. N. Annadurai his protege.

These articles appeared under the headline 'Kamarasar Atharipu Ean?,' (Why supporting Kamarasar?) in Viduthalai on May 15, 1954 and June 1, 1954.

The reason for his support seems to be the fact that Kamarasar was a bachelor without issues and therefore has no ulterior selfish motives. Further he was a pure tamilian and not of Brahminical descent. Kamarasar maintained a balanced view of all castes and was palatable to all walks of people.

Periyar consistently supported Kamarasar for all the years Kamarajar lead the Congress Party.

[edit] Periyar - the final years 1963-1973

Periyar's public support waned in his final years. Both Congress Party in Tamilnadu and DMK formed an alliance to contest the 1973 election against the AIADMK which they won. The party Dravidar Kazhagam became a fringe party as its ideals were considered too extreme by the majority of the people of Tamilnadu.

The leader of AIADMK MG Ramachandran was openly pro-hindu but not pro-brahmin and visited many temples even though he was once a major part of the Dravidar Kazhagam.

The leader of DMK Karunanidhi the current chief minister of Tamilnadu, over the years reduced his strong opposition to Hinduism and focused more on development issues.

Hinduism never left the minds of the people of Tamilnadu and Tamilnadu remained as a divided jumble of various castes, which were more or less equal based on the population statistics of each area.

The power had moved from the 10% of brahmins and saiva-vellalas to the 90% of population which consisted of many castes considered separate but equal (some more equal than others). However dalits of Tamilnadu still struggle to get equality that Periyar imagined.

[edit] EVR's ideas on Modern Tamil Alphabet

He instituted Tamil alphabet reforms and his reasons are as follows:[14]

In writings and publications of 70 or 80 years ago, the vowel 'ee' (i:), indicated today as ' ¼ ', was a cursive and looped representation of the short form, ' ¬ ' (i). In stone inscriptions of 400 or 500 years ago, many Tamil letters are found in other shapes. The older and the more divine a language and its letters are said to be, they, in truth, need reform.

Just as some compound characters have separate signs to indicate their length as in ' æè ' , ' îæ ' (ka: , ke:), why should not other compound characters like ' æ¨ ' , ' æ© ' , ' Æ ' , ' Ô ' (ki, ki:,ku, ku:) (indicated integrally as of now), also have separate signs? This indeed requires consideration.

Changing the shape of letters, creating new symbols and adding new letters and similarly, dropping those that are redundant, are quite essential.The glory and excellence of a language and its script depend on how easily they can be understood or learnt and on nothing else.

[edit] Periyar and Anti-Forward Classism

Periyar was not only against Brahmins but he was also critical of the saiva-vellala group of Tanjore, Madurai, Tirunelveli. They were pure tamilians or dravidians. However they followed discriminatory behavior towards other dravidians such as other Vellalas, Nayaks, etc.

One of the reason for many Mudaliar, Pillai along with Brahmin families to leave Tamilnadu and settle all over India and foreign countries was due to Periyar's protests against discrimination.

[edit] Periyar and anti-Saiva-Vellala-ism

According to Periyar, The cruelties committed by the Saiva Vellalas of the south who come in the next rung, make the whole non-Brahmin society ashamed. Caught between these two communities [Brahmins and Saiva Vellalas], the difficulties faced by the people of other communities are unthinkable.

This article appeared in Kudiarasu on 16-9-1928.[15]

[edit] Periyar and anti-Brahmanism

Periyar's self-respect movement was founded on a principle of intense anti-Brahmanist racism, while nominally claiming to be a movement espousing "rationalism" and "athieism".Tamil Brahmins (Iyers and Iyengars) were frequently held responsible by followers of Periyar for direct or indirect oppression of lower-caste people on the canard of "Brahmin oppression" and resulted in innumerable hate attacks on Brahmins and which amoung other reasons started a wave of forced mass-migration of the Brahmin population.[16]. Periyar is alleged to have called for "Brahmin killing"s and burning down Brahmin homes. Later, in regards to a DK member's attempt to assassinate Rajagopalachari, he "expressed his abhorrence of violence as a means of settling political differences".[17]The canard of "Brahmin oppression" rationalized conspiracy theories and pointed to Brahmins as enemies against whom the radical movements pitted themselves.[16] The legacy of the anti-Brahmanism of the self-respect movement was taken over by the later Dravidan parties. Growing anti-Brahmanism in Chennai provided a rationale for polarization of the lower castes in the DMK movement.[18] Eventually, the virulent anti-Brahmanism subsided somewhat with the replacement of the DMK party by the AIADMK[19].EVR's followers have broken temple icons, cut sacred threads and tufts from Brahmin priests, and have often portrayed Brahmins in the most derogatory manner in their meetings and magazines (see http://www.viduthalai.com and http://www.unmaionline.com - both in Tamil language).

[edit] Periyar uses historical research for his advantage

Over the course of the 19th century, German philologist such as Max Mueller suggested invasionist scenarios of Indo-Aryan Migration in India as part of a systematic and well-organized propaganda campaign to create sectarian divisions on the basis of racial perceptions contrasting the so-called upper-caste Aryans and lower-caste Dravidians. It also provided the british, a justification for their colonization of South Asia (since "Aryans and Turks and Arabs and Mongols did it too").In colonial India this propagandistic reconstruction of an epoch lying almost three to four thousand years in the past changed created a volume of pseudohistorical literature, causing the brainwashed masses in the South into an "internalized past" through an act of "semioticization the Aryan migration"[20]. Periyar and his followers exploited this body of literature to advance the notion of a "Pure Dravidian Race", superior in every way to the "despicable" Aryan Brahmins, philosophies that historian Michael Bergunder compares to the ideas of Herrenvolk in Nazi Germany[20]

A major aspect of this ideology was the claim that the "Aryan" Brahmins started the Indian Caste System immediately following the "Aryan Invasion" as a tool to exploit and oppress the "Dravidians", a debunked and largely pseudohistorical claim that was used by Periyarites to justify their villification of Brahmins, which frequently devloved into anti-Hinduism in general.[20]. Such propaganda swiftly became the bastion of Dravidian nationalist ideology, and was absorbed into numerous sectarian and communal movements. However, it was only the Self-Respect Movement started Periyar that provided a popular catalyst for a Tamil nationalism that ostensibly had a "secular" foundation. In the 1930s and ’40s there thus developed a Dravidian mass movement, which had among its declared goals the abolition of "Brahmanical oppression" through the caste system and religion and the revival of Dravidian culture and society.The pseudohistory of a "venerable flourishing Dravidian civilization" (centuries prior to actual advanced Tamil civilizations such as the Chola Empire and during a period when mainstream archaeology conforms the total absense of any society in South India more advanced than the Stone Age), unjustly "destroyed by the Aryan Brahmins", played a significant role in the Dravidian propaganda of this period. This act of turning the Orientalist and invasionist scenario of the Aryan Migration became a leitmotif of the argument that formed part of Periyar's anti-Brahmanism[20]. A reflection of Periyar's pseudohistorical propaganda was in his declaration:

We do not need to explain how the Aryans entered and settled in the Dravidian

country (tira¯vit»a na¯» t»u), and subjugated and oppressed the Dravidians. Nor do we need to explain how before the Aryans entered the Dravidian country, the Dravidian country had a civilization and arts of the highest rank …

[20]

Such claims rendered the Self-respect movement to swiftly degenerate into mass-hysteria, with Tamil poets such as Bharati Dasan, who became the mouthpiece of the Periyarites. He wrote poems that were similar in tone and polemic to anti-Semitic propaganda films in Nazi Germany (such as Der Ewige Juden) that were contemporary to that period. To him, Brahmins were "common Mlechachas" who came as common beggars to plunder the Dravidian land. A sample of his incendiary and racislist poetry goes:

In order through false promises, through strife, // to rule fraudulently, they

fraudulently, they (Brahmins) came at»i.

[20]

[edit] Legacy

  • The major legacy of Periyar would be to instill in every individual in Tamilnadu, respect for himself via the self-respect movement. He was not alone in this and many leaders such as Ambedkar were fighting for similar rights for the down-trodden throughout India.
  • Periyar's views were always very extreme for the mainstream of Tamilnadu which never embraced his party Dravidar Kazhagam.
  • The definite legacy of Periyar was to accelerate the democratic process in Tamilnadu where the majority of the population holds the power and government posts. It also lead to politics based on casteism in Tamilnadu as castes became the tags around which people organized themselves. However this is also happening in all the states of India delayed by 20 years.
  • He declared Indian independence as a day of slavery and declared it as a day of mourning. He fought for the separation of Tamil areas of India and Sri Lanka and for the human rights of the oppressed Tamil diaspora. He backed colonial rule and attempted to forge an alliance with both Ambedkar and Jinnah.
  • EVR's comment on Tamil as a "language of barbarians" haunted him later in life. He was a strong proponent of embracing English as the global language and dropping Tamil from academics. To this day, his followers choose to ignore discussions on this topic.
  • Early in his political life, EVR had derided Tirukkural and an anachronism and a tool for Aryan aggrandisement. At a later point, he embraced it as the true guide and insisted it was a common guide for all religions. When prominent Muslims spoke out and commented that a man-made work, Tirukkural can never equal God-given verses (Qur'an), EVR and his rationalist thought observed silence.
  • In recent years, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahman movements such as neo-Buddhism have adopted Periyarite rhetoric into their propaganda. Other Anti-Brahman, anti-Hindu and anti-Semitic groups such as Dalitstan and Dalit Voice have combined Periyarite rhetoric with Afrocentric pseudohistory to portray [{Dalit]]s as "Black-descended" and pitted against the "White" Brahmins
  • Periyar played a role in briefly uniting all the castes of Tamilnadu to seek representative power in the democracy. However some of the forward classes such as the Brahmins and Saiva-Vellalas were excluded. This unity did not last long and the various castes never dropped their identity nor Hinduism.

[edit] Criticizm

  • Periyar created an anti-Brahmin movement in India. Tamil Brahmins (Iyers and Iyengars) were frequently held responsible by followers of Periyar for direct or indirect oppression of lower-caste people on the canard of "Brahmin oppression" and resulted in innumerable hate attacks on Brahmins and which amoung other reasons started a wave of forced mass-migration of the Brahmin population.[15]. Periyar is alleged to have called for "Brahmin killing"s and burning down Brahmin homes. Later, in regards to a DK member's attempt to assassinate Rajagopalachari, he "expressed his abhorrence of violence as a means of settling political differences".[16]The canard of "Brahmin oppression" rationalized conspiracy theories and pointed to Brahmins as enemies against whom the radical movements pitted themselves.[15] The legacy of the anti-Brahmanism of the self-respect movement was taken over by the later Dravidan parties. Growing anti-Brahmanism in Chennai provided a rationale for polarization of the lower castes in the DMK movement.[17] Eventually, the virulent anti-Brahmanism subsided somewhat with the replacement of the DMK party by the AIADMK[18]
  • EVR's followers have broken temple icons, cut sacred threads and tufts from brahmin priests, and have often portrayed Brahmins in the most derogatory manner in their meetings and magazines (see http://www.viduthalai.com and http://www.unmaionline.com - both in Tamil language).
  • Gandhi did not like his views as he wanted to bring in reforms gradually and spoke of inclusion, not exclusion and hate; Periyar bolted away from the freedom movement so much that he declared the day of Indian Independence as a blackmark in the history of India.
  • EVR in his seventies married a girl named Maniammai who was in her twenties. While he explained that the marriage was to make her his legal heir and nothing more, the real intentions were obvious given that adoption of the girl as his daughter would have achieved the same end.
  • Demand for Dravidistan was definitely one of the far-fetched ideas of Periyar. The demand for a separate Tamil land ended when power at the central government was shared with Tamilnadu.

[edit] Periyar - The Movie

Sathyaraj and Khushboo starred in a movie on E.V. Ramaswamy in a government-sponsored movie.

[edit] Notable followers

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Ramayana-reading-E-Ramaswami-Naicker/dp/B0006E12N4/sr=1-1/qid=1167891710/ref=sr_1_1/002-7042148-2641612?ie=UTF8&s=books
  2. ^ http://www.periyar.org/html/ap_bios_eng1.asp
  3. ^ http://www.periyar.org/html/ap_bios_eng1.asp
  4. ^ http://snphilosophers2005.tripod.com/louis.pdf
  5. ^ http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr98/fe0798/PIBF0707981.html
  6. ^ http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2006/12/dravidiana-perversity-of-periyarana.html
  7. ^ http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19990331/iex31073p.html
  8. ^ http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/Periyar.pdf
  9. ^ Sara Dickey,"The politics of adulation in South India", Journal of Asian Studies Vol 52 No 2 (1993) pages 340-372
  10. ^ http://sify.com/news/politics/fullstory.php?id=13569138
  11. ^ http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/periyar.htm
  12. ^ http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/Periyar.pdf
  13. ^ http://www.periyar.org/html/dk_movement_eng.asp
  14. ^ http://www.uni-giessen.de/~gk1415/revolutionary.htm#9
  15. ^ http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/Periyar.pdf
  16. ^ a b Lloyd I. Rudolph Urban Life and Populist Radicalism: Dravidian Politics in Madras The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3 (May, 1961), pp. 283-297
  17. ^ Lloyd I. Rudolph and Suzanne Hoeber Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: political development in India P78,University of Chicago Press 1969, ISBN:0226731375
  18. ^ Singh, Yogendra,Modernization of Indian Tradition: (A Systemic Study of Social Change),Oriental Press 1974 page 167
  19. ^ C. J. Fuller,The Renewal of the Priesthood: Modernity and Traditionalism in a South Indian Temple P117, Princeton University Press 2003 ISBN:0691116571
  20. ^ a b c d e f Bergunder M, Contested Past: Anti-Brahmanical and Hindu nationalist reconstructions of Indian prehistory,Historiographia Linguistica, Volume 31, Number 1, 2004, pp. 59-104(46)

[edit] Bibliography

  • Diehl, Anita. E. V. Ramaswami - Periyar: A study of the influence of a personality in contemporary South India. ISBN 91-24-27645-6.
  • Richman, Paula. "E.V. Ramasami's Reading of the Ramayana" in Paula Richman, ed., Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia.